J Korean Community Nurs.  2001 Mar;12(1):214-225.

A Study on the Characteristics of the Demented Elderly staying at home

• Oh JJ
• Oh JJ
• Kwon YS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the characteristics of the demented elderly and normal elderly over 65 staying at home in Seoul. Here the demented elderly are defined as the aged who score under 20 on the MMSE-K testing. The subjects were 15.104 elders in home. The method is a cross-sectional study home visiting survey with questionnaires. Data analyses were conducted by using frequency percentage t-test and ANOVA procedures.
Results
are as follows: First general characteristics such as sex age marriage education physical health and family characteristics such as economic level and single living showed a significant variance between demented elderly and normal elderly. Second the demented elderly showed a significantly high point of AD and IADL. Third in contrast with normal agents the dementia showed a high need for assistance from the care giver but followed the same pattern. In conclusion the above findings suggested that a social support system should be developed for the demented elderly and care givers in the home.

MeSH Terms

Aged*
Caregivers
Cross-Sectional Studies
Dementia
Education
Family Characteristics
House Calls
Humans
Marriage
Surveys and Questionnaires
Seoul
Statistics as Topic